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Failure to Appear

Missing a court date is not like missing any other appointment. If you are facing criminal charges of failure to appear, you need an aggressive and determined defense attorney on your side.

If you miss a criminal court date, you are considered a fugitive, in most cases, and a bench warrant will be issued for your arrest. A failure to appear in court is that serious.

But there are usually options to fix this problem. If you missed your court date for a legitimate reason, or by mistake, or even out of a moment of panic, we can help. But it is critical that we do so right away. The longer you take, the worse it could be, and the more likely it is that you are picked up and put in jail. Once you are caught, most of your best defense options are off the table.

If you are out of state or out of the county, and afraid to return, our attorneys may be able to help, in some cases, without you having to appear in court.

Some people make the mistake of staying away from the courts once they miss a court date. But a proactive stance is always the smartest move in these cases. Give us a call so we can discuss the best way of handling your failure to appear. If there is a warrant out for your arrest, we can talk about how to best handle that, and get your life back to normal, without the fear of arrest.

Fail to Appear in Court – Laws & Penalties in Colorado

In Colorado if you fail to appear for a criminal court date the judge will not be pleased. In most circumstances, a bench warrant will immediately issued for your arrest. This means that any police officer or even bail bondsmen can place you under arrest and bring you in on this warrant.

If you were out on bail at the time you failed to appear, your bail is forfeited. This simply means that you failed to live up to your end of the agreement (bond) and now the court withdraws your bail and you lose any money you put up as collateral.

Once you have failed to appear, it is not likely you will be re-granted bail.

This means if your trial date isn’t for another 2 months, you could be waiting in jail until that date.

Defense Strategies for Failure to Appear in Criminal Court

However scary this may seem, the longer you wait to turn yourself in, the more serious the circumstances and possible penalties. And the less options you will have to negotiate a good outcome.

If you had a legitimate reason for missing court, we may be able to help you smooth it over with the judge. However, if you don’t act quickly it will be seen as a total disregard for the law and the wishes of the court.

We can make a number of arguments to attempt to reduce and even dismiss these penalties in some cases.

Call today for your free consultation to discuss how to best handle your failure to appear charge in Colorado.

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Contact us for a free legal case evaluation on any Colorado criminal charge by calling:

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Disclaimer: This site is advertising. No information here should be considered legal advice. No attorney-client relationship is established by reading this site. Speak to an attorney directly if you are facing any criminal offense.